An international partnership consisting of Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan and the member states of the European Space Agency have jointly maintained a continuous human presence in space since 31 October 2000 when Soyuz TM-31 was launched. Two days later it docked with the International Space Station.[5][24] Since then space has been continuously occupied for 7008508291200000000♠16 years, 39 days.[5]

The International Space Station has been continuously occupied since 2 November 2000 (7008508118400000000♠16 years, 37 days).[5][24] It broke the record of 9 years 358 days of the Soviet/Russian Space Station Mir on 23 October 2010.[24]

Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission stayed for 74 hours 59 minutes 40 seconds (over 3 days) on the lunar surface after they landed on 11 December 1972.[26] They performed three EVAs (extra-vehicular activity) totaling 22 hours 3 minutes, 57 seconds (as commanders were always the first one out of the LM and the last to get back in, Cernan's EVA time was slightly longer).[26]

Laika was a Soviet female canine launched on 3 November 1957 on Sputnik 2. The technology to deorbit had not yet been developed, so there was no expectation for survival. She died several hours into flight. Belka and Strelka were the first to successfully return to Earth from orbit on 19 August 1960.

An assortment of animals including a pair of Russian tortoises, as well as wine flies and mealworms launched with a number of other biological specimens including seeds and bacteria on a circumlunar mission aboard the Zond 5 spacecraft.[28] It was launched by a Proton-K rocket on 15 September 1968.[28] The capsule came within 2000 km of the moon and returned to Earth, the first spacecraft in history to return safely to Earth from the moon.[28]

Apollo 13 crew; Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert while passing over the far side of the moon at an altitude of 254 km (158 mi) from the lunar surface, were 400,171 km (248,655 mi) from Earth.[29] This record breaking distance was reached at 0:21 UTC on 15 April 1970.[29]

The following is a list of the 50 space travelers with the most total time in space, as of 1 November 2016.[34] Travelers currently in space are ranked by total time in space of their completed missions only.

* includes those in orbit at time table was updated
+TOTAL person days in orbit will not match the sum of the totals for individual nations as some individuals are dual citizens (based solely on those identified as such by spacefacts.de - see table references).

Highest velocity of a spacecraft relative to the sun, 252,792 km/h.
Closest ever approach to the sun at a record distance of 0.29 AU (43 million km), slightly inside the orbit of Mercury. Record still unbeaten as of November 2009 but to be beaten by the future Solar Orbiter probe (0.23 AU / 33 million km).

^"Manned spaceflights". spacefacts.de. The flight list allows is searched to determine which flight is in orbit, and when it reached orbit. This allows determination of "Total in orbit (@ update) and update the "Total person days" accordingly.

^"Where are the Voyagers?". Retrieved 2016-11-27. Because Earth moves around the sun faster than Voyager 1 is traveling from Earth, the distance between Earth and the spacecraft actually decreases at certain times of the year.